Thunder Mountain Ranch offers trail rides, boarding, training, riding lessons, and breeding in Northwest Arkansas
ELKINS, ARK. – What started as a commercial cattle operation has blossomed into a growing, popular horse ranch as Delaynee Parsley and her sister, Kristina Niccum, have operated Thunder Mountain Ranch near Elkins, Ark., since 2016.
Their grandfather started Parsley Farms, a commercial cattle operation, about 60 years ago on 300 acres that were split between his children upon his death. Delaynee and Kristina’s father has 200 acres and their aunt and uncle, have 100 acres, but the entire family uses all 300 together for their ranch, Delaynee explained.
For the first four years or so, Thunder Mountain Ranch only had horses but added cattle to the operations in 2020. The horse side of things features about 20 head, mostly Quarter horses and Paints, although not all are registered.
“It doesn’t make them any less important that they’re not registered,” Delaynee said.
The horses’ diet is largely forage based and includes Bermuda hay with supplements of Omega-3, flax and chia seeds, and various minerals and salts.
The ranch offers a variety of services for the general public and horse owners alike.
• Riding Lessons – The ranch recently added a new teacher to help with the expanding interest in riding lessons for all ages. The ranch offers a variety of packages for their riding lessons for one or two riders.
• Boarding – Their boarding services make it possible for local horse owners who don’t have the facilities to house their own animals to have a place to keep their animals.
• Training – This service has become focused on Delaynee’s personal horses and includes training horses to be ridden.
• Performance Team – The ranch has a performance team of nine kids age four to 18. Delaynee is also personally active in a variety of speed shows including barrel racing and other various events.
• Breeding – Thunder Mountain offers American Quarter Horse and American Paint Horse breeding services.
• BEMER Therapy – BEMER stands for Bio-Electrical Magnetic Energy Regulation. The device uses pulsing electrical signals to increase blood flow. It helps with pain management an injury recovery.
• Trail Rides – Currently, the trail rides are mostly in local state parks but the plan is to offer mini trail rides soon.
• Birthday Parties – Birthday parties are another popular service that involves transporting the horses to the appropriate location of the client’s choice. The cost and process changes with the number of horses needed.
While the focus continues to be the horses, she also said that they hope to start being able to show cattle soon. While the cattle herd started about 60 years ago, it has only been the last 10 years that the herd has been a blend of Hereford/Angus with a little bit of Limousin still in some of the bloodlines.
Delaynee and her four sisters will eventually be given all of her father’s portion of the operations. The plan is to keep it mostly horses and downsize the number of cattle. They won’t get rid of the cattle entirely, however.
“I don’t want to get rid of something my grandfather started,” she said.
The cattle are started on sweet feed that is part alfalfa to get them ready for the sale barn. Delaynee said that she eventually would like to weed out the Angus from the herd despite them being a bulkier, more muscular breed.
In addition to showing the cattle herself, Delaynee said they plan to offer a new service soon, which is to allow local FFA students who can’t afford their own animals to raise and show some of the ranch’s cattle.
“It’s so they can show it at the fair. They will feed and work it. We will teach the kids how to do it,” she said.
Future goals in 2025 include having all four of their brood mares carry foals and hopefully get a potential stallion prospect. To have all the current project horses ready to be upgraded to their lesson and trail ride program and to upgrade their tack.
